Business Improvement Districts in the United States [electronic resource] : Private Government and Public Consequences /
Unger, Abraham.author.
This book examines how privatization has transformed cities, particularly through the role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the revitalization of America’s downtown. These public-private partnerships between property owners and municipal government have developed retail strips across the United States into lifestyle and commercial hubs. BIDs are non-profit community organizations with the public power to tax and spend on services in their districts, but they are unelected bodies often operating in the shadows of local government. They work as agents of economic development, but are they democratic? What can we learn from BIDs about the accountability of public-private partnerships, and how they impact our lives as citizens? Unger explores these questions of local democracy and urban political economy in this age of rampant privatization and the reinvention of neighborhoods.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Privatization in the Neighborhood  -- 2. The Structure of Bids: Public-Private Hybrids  -- 3. The Real Lives of BIDs  -- 4. How BIDs Behave: Publicness and Privateness in BID Organizational Life  -- 5. DSBS and BIDs: Advocacy, Not Oversight  -- 6. Epilogue.
This book examines how privatization has transformed cities, particularly through the role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the revitalization of America’s downtown. These public-private partnerships between property owners and municipal government have developed retail strips across the United States into lifestyle and commercial hubs. BIDs are non-profit community organizations with the public power to tax and spend on services in their districts, but they are unelected bodies often operating in the shadows of local government. They work as agents of economic development, but are they democratic? What can we learn from BIDs about the accountability of public-private partnerships, and how they impact our lives as citizens? Unger explores these questions of local democracy and urban political economy in this age of rampant privatization and the reinvention of neighborhoods.
Public policy.
United States-Politics and gover.
Political economy.
Urban economics.
Public administration.
Public Policy.
US Politics.
International Political Economy.
Urban Economics.
Public Administration.